Friday, July 27, 2012

I have been subscribing to The Old Schoolhouse magazine for a while now. It is the most complete resource, in my opinion, that I have seen in all my six years of homeschooling. It has moves to an online publication and there are still older editions available.

TOS magazine launched SchoolhouseTeachers.com earlier this year and it is by far one of the best resources out there for a homeschooling family. There is something for everyone. It provides monthly, weekly and daily lessons in many different subjects. I do recommend that you watch the introductory video . I was a little overwhelmed with the fabulous, information packed site at first but after spending time on there and becoming familiar with everything, I can easily access and quickly find anything I want.

OK, lets start with the Schoolhouse Teachers section. Under this tab are the following links: Career Exploration, Chemistry, College Choice Guidance, Economics, Figures in History, Filmmaking, Geography, High School Math, History, Home Economics, Lapbooking, Literature, Special Needs, Technology and Writing.Each one of these lessons comes with at least one download.

The next tab is the Schoolhouse Dailies. It consists of Summer Olympics, Daily Grammer, Daily Math, Daily Writing, Ditch the Desk: Hands-on-K-5, Everyday Easels, Everyday Explorers: Canada, Everyday Explorers: USA, Pre-K Activites: Read and Play, Summer Shakespeare, This Day in History and This Month's Menu. I have to say that in this category, we used the tab, This Day in History the most. It gives you the monthly history facts for each day. It usually gives two events per day, an assignment and printables. The bugs really enjoyed this part of the site. It was their favorite. Each day they would look forward to learning what happened that day just many years ago. It made learning fun. We also used This Month's Menu a good bit. There are many different kinds of recipes to choose from. Our garden blessed us with an abundance of zucchini. So we decided to find new recipes for these fast growing veggies. We looked under This Month's Menu and found Zucchini Cobbler and Zucchini Rice Casserole . I recommend these is you have lots of zucchini from your garden this summer. Yummy!!!

Now, on to the next tab. See how someone could get a little overwhelmed! Schoolhouse Extras, this by far is my favorite tab. It consist of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (my favorite), TOS Back Issues, Monthly Bonus E-Books ( I am making a CD of these), Free E-book, Schoolhouse Expo and Schoolhouse Planners. I have been so excited about these planners. The 2012-2013 Schoolhouse Planner include five unbelievable PDF e-books that has nearly 800 pages.

All of these planners are chock-full of pages of calendar sheets, planning sheets, notebooking sheets, field trip sheets, chore charts, Bible reading schedules (one thing I was planning for this year and now using thanks to Schoolhouse Teachers.com) and the list goes on and on and on!!!

Personally, I am really loving the Big Planner. I have never used a planner for our homeschooling schedule. I enjoy being able to print out the pages I want and know I will use and create my very own planner(binder). Some pages I know I won't use, so, it's convenient to be able to pick and choose.

As if this isn't enough already, there is another tab with curriculum resources entitled Schoolhouse Library. It consists of Copybooks, Homeschool Life, Monthly Theme, Reading List June, Reading List July, Reading List Summer, Teacher Lesson Archives, Art Shelf, Craft Shelf, Homemaking and House Keeping Shelf, Nature Shelf and Spelling Shelf. The copybooks were something we used daily also because we are a VERY Charlotte Mason-style homeschool. We do alot of copywork for each and every subject so I assigned "A Copybook of The Road Not Taken". I have always loved this poem by Robert Frost. In high school, many years ago, my husband and I were required to memorize this poem so I thought it would be fun for the bugs to see and learn something their Mom and Dad did in school. We have really enjoyed the copybooks from this site.

If you are not sure Schoolhouse Teachers will meet you needs, you can view sample lessons here. You will soon see that this site will fill every need and more for your homeschool.

You can become a Schoolhouse Teacher's member for just $5.95 a month, and you can join now and pay only $1 for your first month. There is also an option of purchasing a full year's worth membership all at once for $64.26 ------- save up to 10% when an entire year is purchased.

My Thoughts:

For me, this site is proving to be an awesome place for someone who is looking for inspiration and encouragement for homeschooling. I feel this site will fill in some of the gaps (or so I think) in our homeschool. I am beyond pleased with the site and content and intend to continue using this to supplement our other curriculum. I feel very blessed to have found this site.

Be sure to see how other homeschooling families are using this resource.

Disclaimer: I received a membership from Schoolhouse Teachers.com in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Monday, July 23, 2012

We received a copy of No-Nonsense Algebra fromMath Essentials. My 14 year old bug is hopefully ready to tackle some algebra!

No-Nonsense Algebra begins with simple algebraic equations. It is a complete algebra course. Each lesson includes an introduction, exercises, examples and reviews. There is also online teaching for each lesson that is included free with the book purchase. In the back of the book is a website: www.nononsensealgebra.com. There is a sticker on the inside back cover of the book. You register at the website using the special code and this is how you get the free online video lessons.

The table of contents include:

Chapter 1 - Necessary Tools for Algebra

Chapter 2 - Solving Equations

Chapter 3 - Graphing and Analyzing Linear Equations

Chapter 4 - Solving and Graphing Inequalities

Chapter 5 - Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities

Chapter 6 - Polynomials

Chapter 7 - Rational Expressive (Algebraic Fractions)

Chapter 8 - Radical Expressions and Geometry

Chapter 9 - Quadratic Equations

Chapter10 - Algebra Word Problems

﻿

My Thoughts:﻿

I think this is a great product for a great price. My 14 year old bug is and will enjoy using No-Nonsense Algebra. She likes that the lessons are short and each one of the lessons focuses on one concept with review.

In addition to the No-Nonsense Algebra program, Math Essentials gave each of us crew members an additional Master Essential Math Skills Book. I received the Geometry book. This is a supplement to be used with a full curriculum. It is a good book for more practice and review of Geometry.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

We have been so very blessed to be able to review the Map Trek 6 E-Book Set. Knowledge Quest, Inc. was started in 2001 by Todd and Terri Johnson. They are a homeschooling family with six children. Their desire was to produce simple black and white maps that children could color and label while studying World and American history. They eventually moved into other history, geography and timeline-related products. In 2011, they added educational mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad to their line-up.

Each ebook includes black outline maps, teacher answer maps, glossary of terms and lesson plans for the Ancient World, Medieval World, New World, Modern World and U. S. Maps. This is also available printed or on CD-ROM.

Lesson Plans have been included and are broken down into three categories: Level A, Level B and Level C.

**********Level A - This level is for children who are in grades 1st-4th.

**********Level B - This level is for children who are in grades 5th-8th.

**********Level C - This level is for high schoolers, 9th - 12th grade.

These maps can be used with numerous history curricula. Knowledge Quest also has curriculum integration guides, free of charge, to download and use with the history curriculum of your choice. They recommend to have a globe, wall map and/or separate atlas for reference.

How to get it:

Each E-Book is $14.95, with the exception of the U.S. Edition being $19.95.

One word, AWESOME!!!!!!! I can't say enough about this product. I think my favorite thing about Map Trek is having all these maps in e-book form. I can print as many copies as I want or not. I print what I need, when I need it. Even the little bugs enjoy coloring maps. I also LOVE having teacher maps. They are in full color and it is easy to check everyones maps. There is nothing about this product I dislike. I can see us using this product for many, many years to come!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

My two oldest bugs have been asking to do some kind of keyboarding program for a little while now. When we were given the opportunity to review Keyboarding for the Christian School I was very excited.

Keyboarding for the Christian School is not a game like other keyboarding programs. It is a typing curriculum for private schools and homeschools geared towards grades 6 and up. It came as a printable e-book. I printed the e-book and put it into a binder with a page protector on each sheet.

It comes as a book so the student looks at their paper and not the computer screen.

~~~~From the website~~~~

Why choose a printable e-book versus a web-based program? Think about the things you type. Are they readily available to copy from the screen or are they something that you are looking at on a piece of paper? Usually you are typing something from a rough draft. If the lessons are only available on the computer monitor, your student will not get the needed skill of transferring information from paper to the computer. A printable e-book allows you the preference of binding the whole book or just giving your student one page at a time. A printable e-book is portable and economical.

When your child or children finish this program, they will have learned touch typing through....... typing, drills, timings, letters, envelopes, APA and MLA Reports (the only book that features both), centering, proofreaders' marks, and creating tables with a Biblical perspective.

My thoughts:

I am not the least bit surprised that Keyboarding for the Christian School is now an award-winning e-book. In a way, it reminds me of when I took a "typing class" in high school on a TYPEWRITER!!! Long time ago!! I am very pleased with this program and my two oldest bugs are finding it fun and refreshing.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

This will be our 6th year of homeschooling. We have always been pretty much a textbook style homeschool but last year after 6 years we finally figured out that it wasn't working for us. We totally went Charlotte-Mason style schooling and have never looked back! Most of our curriculum we use comes from Queen Homeschool.

We love doing unit studies also. We do as many subjects together as possible. We love Amanda Bennett unit studies. We usually use them for our history and science studies. We love our system, it is working.

This year we will also use products we were given to review. I was given the opportunity to review for This Oldschoolhouse and in return, I give my honest opinion and review for the products. This year our bugs are 14,10,9,5, and 3. Here is our line up for this year.......

Each book in the series is meant to stand on its own. You don't have to use the other books in the series to use Who Is My Neighbor?.

For the purpose of this review I received the student textbook, the notebooking journal and the coloring book for the series. The recommended age for this curriculum is 6 - 14 years old. The series can be used as a multi-grade curriculum which works very well for us. We are big fans of doing as much school together as possible.

The books have very nice pictures in them and the text is suitable for all ages, including adults. I am enjoying it as much as the bugs. An older student can read it themselves or to younger ones. The student textbook can be used alone. The notebooking journal and coloring book is not necessary, although we are enjoying all of them.

How we use it:

I have been reading aloud to my bugs and we are really enjoying this series. We are using this as our bible in school right now. Everyone has really been interested in the Chang family as they escape from China and flee to America. This series is about servanthood and how to teach how important it is to help each other.

There is a sample lesson plan in the textbook that is based on a schedule of 3 weeks per lesson, two days per week or a daily lesson plan in the journal. We are using the one in the journal although I have been spreading the reading out a little because I feel it works better to cover a little less material each day. Especially with little ones.

My thoughts:

I love this curriculum! The bugs and I are really enjoying the stories in this book. I really like the fact that I can use the curricula with all of my bugs even though I have a wide range of ages. I feel it is priced accordingly to the material it provides.

The accompanying notebook journal in my opinion is wonderful. It has room to answer questions, to use for copywork for bible verses and prayers and also numerous pages with crossword puzzles and word lists.

The coloring book is very nice and can be used by the younger children to reinforce the lessons. I use coloring sheets with my little bugs while I read aloud to my older ones. The coloring sheets are so nice and detailed in this book even my older ones wanted to color.

I have children of all different ages so we were able to use all three levels. There are 3 grades of math in each level. It will take approximately 10 months to complete each level depending on how long you work everyday. We usually work about 30 minutes a day on a lesson.

Professor B is a teaching program. Professor B has no sound. It tells you what to say, when to say it. The teacher (parent) reads it all out loud. The program is designed for the teacher (parent) to work along side the student. At the beginning of every lesson, you will go to the Table of Contents to get started, select what you want the student to study and go straight to that section. For example, there is no need to start with single digit subtraction if you are working on multiple digit subtraction.

Professor B is an online program. There is nothing to download or install on your computer. Any one level is $20 a month. Two levels at the same time is an additional $15. All three at the same time adds another $10 a month.

WHAT I THINK.......Overall, we enjoyed the program. I think it might be a little pricey for homeschool families to use, especially if you have multiple children. Although it might be a bit pricey, if you have a child or children struggling with something, I would highly recommend it. It is a fun math program and I know from experience, if something is fun, learning is fun!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Recently I was given the opportunity to review this product and was very excited about it. Not only is it my first review, it was a great opportunity to have one full year of literature for my oldest bug.

These four books are listed in the order that they are read for the course.

Some of the shorter works included:

* "The Angler" by Washington Irving

* Poems by William C. Bryant

* "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar A. Poe

* Poems by Henry W. Longfellow

These short stories and poems were included in the student guide.

The STUDENT GUIDE is a 178 page softcover book that has eight lessons that are divided into different sections like this:

~~~Introduction

~~~The Selection

~~~While You Read

~~~Comprehension Questions

~~~Literary Lessons

~~~Writing Exercises

~~~Perspectives and Connections

~~~Appendix A, B, & C

The TEACHER GUIDE is 56 pages that are stapled together and have a three hole punch that can be used with a binder (not included). I love using binders! It has a table of contents with : introduction, grading tips, schedules, answers to comprehension questions, writing exercises and discussion questions. It explains each section in full detail.

What I thought about the course:

I really like the weekly lesson plans. We can look at the schedule and know exactly what to expect for that week. We have decided to do the full-year schedule along with our other language curriculum.

I like the fact that there wasn't a lot of prep time required on my part. My oldest bug was able to pretty much do it on her own. I would help her with any questions she might have and was able to correct anything with the teachers guide that she might have missed.

I felt that it covered the topics well. We will continue to use this for the rest of the school year and perhaps re-use it with the four other bugs when they become of age to do so. I would highly recommend this course to any student that loves to read!